Intel said the current quarter is slightly better than the company’s expectation as the economy which has hit personal computer (PC) industry is likely to have ended, and today the company has higher confidence that the company’s full-year sales will be similar to historical pattern.
Intel is keen to become an indicator of PC and server market trend considering that it has the position as the key chip supplier to large hardware manufacturers, and every good cheer from Intel will be hailed by Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Seagate and others.
The company has gathered most recent financial data, which is approximately the half of the way to the second quarter, and the data supports the company’s confidence. Intel also said that industry forecasts that PC sales will drop sharply in 2009 could be too pessimistic.
While the news reports say the European Commission fined Intel a record 1.06 billion euros on Wednesday for abusing its dominance in the computer chip market to exclude its only serious rival, Advanced Micro Devices.
The European Union (EU) is fining Intel a record €1.06 billion or $1.45 billion due to violations of antitrust rules in Europe. The record fine surpasses that of the €497 million fine originally levied against Microsoft.
“Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years,” European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said to media in a statement.
Intel was ordered to cease the illegal practices immediately and has three months from the notification of the decision to pay up, and ordered it halt illegal rebates also other practices to squeeze out rival AMD. As we see may be Intel will appeal and this will drag the litigation on for years as did Microsoft.
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